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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25076833">Triptail</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicory/pseuds/Chicory'>Chicory</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cats, Chapter Coda, Gen, Other</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:21:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25076833</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicory/pseuds/Chicory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A coda to chapter twelve: The Mirror of Erised.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754545</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Triptail</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This probably isn't my best work but it's been weeks again since I've written anything! (I have no sense of time.) I really wanted to write this after I read chapter six and Rowling mentioned the dozens of cats on the platform. This starts like a horror or something and then kind of falls flat, ha ha.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hogwarts was strange at night.</p><p>Suits of armour loomed in the nooks, ambient light gleaming on the steel plates like reflections on water, the empty visors staring out of the shadows. Wind whistled in the cracks of the worn stone walls; a single hollow note in the unusual silence. Wisps of silver flickered in the distance, gliding behind corners just out of sight. Somewhere in the vast labyrinthine darkness, the murmur of a thousand whispered voices drifted along the hallways.</p><p>Harry clenched his wand tightly in his fist, the back of his neck prickling, his breaths hot and damp in the suffocating space beneath the Invisibility Cloak. He'd been really excited when he'd first left the Gryffindor Tower, but as he sneaked further into the warren depths of the castle, he felt his insides knot with vague apprehension. The hallways and nooks and rooms he'd got used to in the four months he'd been at Hogwarts were suddenly unfamiliar, ominous, as if the world had tilted slightly off-kilter.</p><p>He strained his ears, listening to the quiet echo of his footsteps. The Cloak dragged in his wake, the hem sighing over the stone floors. The occasional torch wavered in a draught, the shadows of the flame rippling on the walls, glinting off the frames of the paintings.</p><p>As Harry walked past the carrels on the first floor, the library doors peering out at the end of the corridor, he unconsciously hurried his steps. He was just going to look for Flamel in the Restricted Section and go back to the Gryffindor Tower, he thought -- and then his thoughts scattered as he tripped and hit the floor. There was a loud, angry hiss behind him and the sound of a cat running away.</p><p>Harry lay on the floor for a moment, his forehead pressed on the cold stone, and contemplated how much he hated cats.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading, if anyone did :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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